The Story of the Tandy 200, BIG upgrades = WORSE Sales - Tandy Lab 

I have both the Tandy 102 and Tandy 200. I find the keyboard of my 102 one of the best I've ever used in 40 years.

You've settled on a good format: Intro, history, ratings. Keep up the good work.

I have a Tandy 200 in almost-like-new condition that I used along with a Tandy 100 to run software I developed to assist diagnosis and make medical charting vastly quicker and better. From what I’ve seen of modern medical records systems, they are better at wasting time than saving it. Thus for those applications, software is much more important than hardware. As much as I love early Tandy computers, I am even more enamored with the Atari 520ST and 1040ST. I used my 520ST for years and didn’t know what a crash was until I received a crash course in that after buying my first Windows computer.

Small point of contention: I'm gonna give 'Usability' a SIX out of five, for possibly the greatest keyboard EVER made...😁

Not _quite_ 100% compatibility. Pokes and peeks had to be to different memory addresses. The TRS80 200 was my first computer. My editor had recommended I purchase a 100, but the Tandy salesman sold me the 200 for the same price. The bigger screen meant it was definitely worth it! My editor gave me a bunch of programs on a cassette that had been written for the 100 and they worked for the most part. I can’t really recall the issues because I purchased a ROM from Traveling Software in the US that had a better word processor, a database and a disk OS for the single sided 3.5 inch floppy drive I purchased. I loved that machine! I wrote many thousands of words with it. I still have the Traveling Software flyer somewhere that had many accessories for both the 100 and 200. I still have the machine that replaced it: an Olivetti Quaderno with a 20 MB hdd, 286 cpu and MS DOS 5 in ROM. Despite the cpu being a 286 it was an XT class limited to 640 KB RAM, not AT. The battery life was greatly inferior to the Tandy, but the ability to store 720 KB on floppy disk made it far more useful. Being A5 format, the keyboard is also very difficult to type on whereas I never owned another portable with a keyboard to equal the Tandy 200.

Back in the day, I bought one of these at the BX on Ramstein AB. I would use it when on base while doing my laundry to write programs or letters home, and then transfer them over null modem to my Atari 800 or Amiga. For what it was, it was terrific. It just lasted FOREVER on a set of batteries. Nothing else laptop-like could touch the lifespan on batteries.

I owned a Model 200 for a short while before upgrading to a 1100 FD and than a 1400 LT.

Fantastic work yet again! Please keep it up!

I'm actually working on writing a game on my 200. The larger screen over the 100 is a huge bonus. I find the biggest challenge to be lack of documentation. It's almost impossible to find anything 200 specific. I do like the edit command. I can use it to re-number lines of code easily. I guess the 100 had this also, but I don't have a 100. Another thing comes to mind. If I actually get to a demo level of a game on the 200 there will literally be almost no people to give it a run. Oh well, coding is still fun.

Got a Model 200 off eBay as thought it's case design would be a good one to copy for a modern neo-retro computer - like packaging The 8-Bit Guy's Commander X16 motherboard in a case like this in combo with modern color display and modern lithium battery pack

Yes, did not sell very well because $999 alot of dough back in 1985...but unfair to say Tandy 1000 cost as much because that does not include video display/monitor and the T200 is complete as is. Then again, the 200 does not come with permanent mass storage until portable disk drive a little later (unless you choose to rely on cassette recorder)...then again, most users used it in "the field" to compose and edit text on large 16-line screen and shoot files out over telephone lines using built-in modem and TELCOM program which Tandy 1000 lacked in base config. Should mention base 24 KB RAM memory provides for smaller BASIC and TEXT areas than a 32 KB Model 100. But can expand with two additional banks of 24 KB at extra cost. One big advantage of Model 200 was the arrow keys were regular full-size keyboard keys, not "chiclet" keys in a single line as on Model 100. This made a very big difference moving the cursor around the screen/document. Compared to the MSDOS laptops like Bondwell etc. you mention the Models 100/200 were the Palm Pilots of their day. No time wasted booting up, ultra reliable. Not as capable in conventional terms but oh so so handy in the field !!! BASIC interpreter available at touch of a key, and oh that oh-so-useful built in modem when we still have public pay phones, provided you had room for that acoustic coupler in your briefcase!

Thanks for watching! Have you ever used a Tandy 200? What did you think of it?

I used a Tandy 102 back in the 80’s, then in a burst of nostalgia I bought a mint condition Tandy 102 on eBay back in 2008 and then I bought a mint boxed Tandy 200 in about 2010. My overwhelming experience now is that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be! Back in the 80’s the 100/102 was totally unique, if you needed a reliable device with long battery life and no need for a mains lead or battery charger then it was great. In my case It was invaluable in the 80s because it had rs232 port and the basic could easily be programmed to control rs232 devices with no real programming skill. The Tandy 102 still feels good today, it’s a solid feel and the overall size and weight is ok.. however the 200 feels very clunky and slab like, the screen is bigger but for most users that not so important... so I can see why the 100 and 102 sold much better, also the 200 was considerably more expensive when it was sold alongside the 100/102. Mostly my old Tandys stay safely in storage, but every now and then I get them out and turn them on..it’s a dose of nostalgia that feels good, but I can’t recreate the enthusiasm that I had for these back in the 80s.

Mine had an accoustic coupler

Fading screen could be signal that internal NiCad backup battery needs replacement. On all these old "Model Ts" - replace that internal battery before it leaks and ruins your circuit board.

I have a 200, and I DESPERATELY wish I could jump in a time machine and give it to 80's Richard. Was a GREAT machine for its time. That keyboard, ohhh, SOOO good....

What computer do you want to see us cover more than anything?

Do you prefer the 100 0r the 200?

1:00 - Woah, woah, woah; slow down, go back. What is a "video disc interface"? 🤨 Did the Tandy 100 have a "video disc" (in the early 80s when CDs were barely a thing yet)? 🤔 Do a video about _that!_ 😲

You could modify the 100 with a better res screen, if not a folding, taller screen, for less than these things go for nowadays. Quite the ripoff. Shame they didn't take off.